scholarly journals The distribution of Polychaeta in offshore deposits in the Irish Sea

Author(s):  
Eve C. Southward

During 1952–54 a survey was made of the Polychaeta living in the offshore bottom deposits of the south of the Isle of Man. These deposits range from stones and coarse gravel to soft mud; samples were obtained with a van Veen grab sampler and various dredges.It was found that, although some species were widely distributed, each bottom deposit had a typical fauna, and that where the deposits graded into one another the polychaete fauna was also mixed. The distribution of each species appears to depend mainly on its mode of life and feeding habits; some can exist in several types of deposit or habitat, while others are very much restricted in their distribution.The Polychaeta formed a high proportion, numerically, of the macrofauna, exceeding any other animal group, except possibly in the coarse gravels. However, the density of the polychaete population was low compared with other areas of the British Isles, and this may be correlated with the comparatively low biomass in the area.

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Belchem

As imperial pride flourished in the racial discourse of late Victorian British politics, ethnic revival and Celtic nationalism also gained purchase and resonance. These complex and seemingly competing issues of identity extended beyond the “four nations” of the United Kingdom to the Isle of Man, a crown dependency constitutionally outside the United Kingdom but at the very center of the British Isles. In this “land of home rule,” adrift in the Irish Sea, the juxtaposition of Britishness and Celticism was particularly acute, compounded by the proud persistence of Norse traditions. Manx independence within the Atlantic archipelago was symbolized by the annual Tynwald Day ceremony, a Viking “Thing” or general meeting, at which the year's new legislation was promulgated in both English and Manx Gaelic. In the late Victorian period, as Anglo-Manx business syndicates invested heavily in the “visiting industry,” transforming the island into “one large playground for the operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire,” gentlemanly antiquarians constructed (and/or invented) the necessary traditions to safeguard Manx cultural distinctiveness and its devolved political status. Through the assertion of Celticism, a project that tended to downgrade Norse contributions to the island's past, the little Manx nation girded itself against cultural anglicization, yet remained unquestionably loyal to the British empire.Slightly other than English, the Manx have displayed what Sir Frank Kermode has described as “mild alienation” and “qualified foreignness,” characteristics that need to be considered in the wider debate about British identity.


Author(s):  
Vicki Cummings

The transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland remains one of the most debated and contested transitions of prehistory. Much more complex than a simple transition from hunting and gathering to farming, the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Britain has been discussed not only as an economic and technological transformation, but also as an ideological one. In western Britain in particular, with its wealth of Neolithic monuments, considerable emphasis has been placed on the role of monumentality in the transition process. Over the past decade the author‧s research has concentrated on the early Neolithic monumental traditions of western Britain, a deliberate focus on areas outside the more ‘luminous’ centres of Wessex, the Cotswold–Severn region, and Orkney. This chapter discusses the transition in western Britain, with an emphasis on the monuments of this region. In particular, it discusses the areas around the Irish Sea – west Wales, the Isle of Man, south-west and western Scotland – as well as referring to the sequence on the other side of the Irish Sea, specifically eastern Ireland.


Author(s):  
David M. Wilson

This chapter examines the influences in the early sculpture in the Isle of Man, particularly the crosses that were previously described as Celtic. It suggests that the inscriptions in the Manx sculpture epigraphically and linguistically relate the island to the lands round the Irish Sea, while their typology and style history provide rough chronological yardsticks. The findings reveal that most pre-Viking memorial stones can be found in cemeteries on the sites of keeills.


Author(s):  
J. B. Sykes ◽  
A. D. Boney

Until recently there has been very little information on the quantities of phytoplankton nutrients in the Irish Sea. Slinn (1958–1966) has reported the weekly variations in the nutrient concentrations at a station off Port Erin, Isle of Man, and studies on the nutrient conditions in the Menai Straits have been carried out by Jones (unpublished) and Ewins & Spencer (1967). Liss (1969) has reported on the results of winter surveys of reactive silicate near the Irish coast, and from three stations near the Welsh coast (Anglesey, the Lleyn Peninsula and Fishguard). The present paper describes studies carried out in the inshore waters near Aberystwyth in Cardigan Bay during 1967 and 1968. This investigation formed part of a study of the seasonal occurrence of the phytoplankton and the growth conditions in this shallow, inshore region.


2003 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 9-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Darvill ◽  
Geoffrey Wainwright ◽  
Vanessa Constant ◽  
Yvette Staelens ◽  
Anna Stocks ◽  
...  

Topographical and geophysical surveys carried out in August 2002 at three monuments in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire are reported: Bedd Arthur, Gors Fawr and Meini Gwyr. Previously unrecorded features were revealed at all three sites, most spectacularly at Meini Gwyr which, from the evidence of geophysical survey, appears to be a multi-phase monument that includes a double pit-circle, hengi-form monument and embanked enclosure with an internal stone circle. Comparisons are made with plans prepared by Flinders Petrie in 1926, published here for the first time. A viewshed analysis of the surveyed sites and others of similar kind in the area allows an appreciation of landscape setting and intervisibility. It is suggested that the stone circles are sited in relation to upland stone sources. All the monuments considered here are compared with contemporary structures recorded elsewhere in the British Isles. It is concluded that while the stone circles and oval setting fit comfortably within a distribution pattern that extends across most of the British Isles, the later phases of Meini Gwyr at least belong to a more localized tradition of monument building focused on the Irish Sea region.


2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 1389-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh M. Kilgallen ◽  
Alan A. Myers ◽  
David McGrath

Orchomenella crenata is recorded for the first time from the Irish Sea. Some authors have previously questioned the validity of this taxon due to its morphological similarity with Orchomenella nana and have placed it in the synonymy of O. nana. The question of its validity is resolved by the re-description and comparison of both species.


Author(s):  
A.R. Child

The bass Dicentrarchus labrax is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Morocco (30°N) to southern Norway (60°N) and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas (Whitehead et al., 1986). Throughout its range the bass is an important commercial species and in the waters around the British Isles it is exploited both by commercial fishermen and by sport anglers.Since the early 1970s the recorded landings of bass have increased considerably (Pickett & Pawson, 1991). The increased exploitation and the conflict of interest between sport fishermen and commercial bass fishermen have been the subject of a multitude of articles in the fishing press calling for greater stock management. Detailed knowledge of the stock structure was required to provide advice on the management of the UK bass fishery (Pawson & Pickett, 1987).Prior to 1980, tagging studies were conducted off the southern coast of Ireland (Kennedy & Fitzmaurice, 1972), the south-west of England (Holden & Williams, 1974) and in the Irish Sea (Kelley, 1979).


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
HR Dolton ◽  
FR Gell ◽  
J Hall ◽  
G Hall ◽  
LA Hawkes ◽  
...  

Satellite tracking of endangered or threatened animals can facilitate informed conservation by revealing priority areas for their protection. Basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus (n = 11) were tagged during the summers of 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 in the Isle of Man (IoM; median tracking duration 378 d, range: 89-804 d; median minimum straight-line distance travelled 541 km, range: 170-10406 km). Tracking revealed 3 movement patterns: (1) coastal movements within IoM and Irish waters, (2) summer northward movements to Scotland and (3) international movements to Morocco and Norway. One tagged shark was bycaught and released alive in the Celtic Sea. Basking sharks displayed inter-annual site fidelity to the Irish Sea (n = 3), a Marine Nature Reserve (MNR) in IoM waters (n = 1), and Moroccan waters (n = 1). Core distribution areas (50% kernel density estimation) of 5 satellite tracked sharks in IoM waters were compared with 3902 public sightings between 2005 and 2017, highlighting west and south coast hotspots. Location data gathered from satellite tagging broadly correspond to the current boundaries of MNRs in IoM waters. However, minor modifications of some MNR boundaries would incorporate ~20% more satellite tracking location data from this study, and protective measures for basking sharks in IoM waters could further aid conservation of the species at local, regional and international scales. We also show the first documented movement of a basking shark from the British Isles to Norway, and the longest ever track for a tagged basking shark (2 yr and 2 mo, 804 d).


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